<p>I'm a student at a relatively selective high school (Obama's high school), and I recently applied to a lot of schools. I've read a lot of threads and reviewed a lot of materials, but I just can't pin a percentage to my chances. I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys could offer.
I have a 3.85 GPA unweighted, 2090 SAT (CR 660, MA 720, WR 710), 690 Math II and 790 Chemistry SAT II, I've taken 3 APs and 4 honors courses, I fence 5 nights a week, have about 25 hrs community service, and I'm involved in one research project.</p>
<p>I've applied to:</p>
<p>Olin college - top choice
Duke
Harvey Mudd
UC Berkeley
Tufts
Carnegie Mellon
Stanford</p>
<p>Have you gotten any awards in fencing? If you excel in fencing, you might have a higher chance at these college.</p>
<p>Olin college- high reach; very low chance, sorry.
Duke- reach
Harvey Mudd- reach
UC Berkeley- high reach
Tufts- reach
Carnegie Mellon- high reach
Stanford- high reach</p>
<p>Your GPA is fine, but SATs and extracurriculars bring you down a bit. For the colleges you’re applying to, your stats are mediocre, and ECs aren’t impressive enough to make up for it. However, if you’ve written fantastic essays, you might increase your chance. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think you got a decent chance at all the schools; although you don’t have many extracurricular activities, it seems like you are dedicated to fencing. Colleges like to see students who exhibit passion for their extracurricular so that is definitely a plus for you. As for your SAT they’'re good but not great and your GPA is excellent. What do want to major in? Engineering? Well good luck with everything.</p>
<p>I have a couple other extra curricular activities. I’m a violinist. I’ve played for 9 years, and my orchestra placed second nationally last year (I’m only a second violinist though). I was Hawaii’s youth delegate to an international conference in Morocco two years ago. And I went to China to teach english for a month last summer. Sorry, I forgot to mention these.</p>
<p>Haha, yeah if you mentioned those on your applications then that will definitely be a plus. Once again playing violin for 9 years shows dedication and you have done some unique things so I think you have a better shot at those schools. Still they are all difficult to get accepted to.</p>
<p>These schools all range from reaches to pretty much impossible for you. You have a pretty good GPA, but the test scores are out of range for practically all of those schools. You also have no hooks that could help you, unless you didn’t list them in the meager profile of yourself that you gave us to chance you. The fact that you fence 5 nights a week doesn’t really tell me much, you could be terrible for all I know. Have you won any awards or something similar in fencing or do you just do it a lot? It’s still a way to show dedication at the least. The rest of the ECs are pretty good, but in no way are they going to offset the rest of your application.</p>
<p>I think I need to post more of my information, so here it is.</p>
<p>Race: Caucasian
Both parents have graduate degrees
One sibling in college
School Attended: Punahou School
Languages studied: German, Japanese, and Mandarine Chinese
APs taken: Chemistry, Physics B, Calculus AB
Honor courses taken: Biology, Chemistry, Chinese II-III
Honors received: Recognition awards in Biology H, PE, and AP Chemistry; service award in Chinese I, 1st place Chinese speech competition in Baojing China
Recommendations: Chinese, Math/homeroom, fencing coach (I read this one and it was astounding)</p>
<p>Test scores:
Reasoning- CR: 660 M: 720 W: 710
SAT II- Math II: 690 Chemistry: 790</p>
<p>ECs:
Fencing- 2yrs 5 nights/week
Violin- 9yrs
Independent genetic research- 30hrs so far
Community Service with Salvation army preschool- 24 hrs
Community service (dances of universal peace)- 5yrs, 6hrs quarterly
Community service trip to teach English in China- 1 month
2nd place American String teacher’s association’s Festival of Orchestras (national competition)
Hawaii youth delegate to International conference on education in Morocco</p>
<p>Work Experience:
Employed as carpenter- 12 weeks/yr 28hrs/week</p>
<p>I’ve applied to:
Olin College
Harvey Mudd
Stanford
Duke
Tufs
Carnegie Mellon
UC Berkeley
University of Colorado at Boulder (accepted)</p>
<p>I would agree with the others that these are all stretches. I would suggest applying to atleast one safety school that you know you can get into. Good Luck all the same!</p>
<p>Have you had an interview w/Olin admissions? For such a small school, they’ve had a significant number of Hawaiian students. I’d say your chances there are as good as anyone else. Good luck!</p>